All posts tagged Radler

A radler by any other name is just a shandy, but in New Zealand, brewers are fighting over who gets to stick the radler name on the increasingly popular summer drink.

A radler is a mixture of beer and lemonade that originated in Germany but has been growing in popularity internationally. Several brewers around the world bottle the mix, and the term radler, which essentially is a specific form of shandy in that it’s a mix of beer and other sweet soda, is used freely to describe it, similar to how one uses “stout” or “lager” to describe a style of beer. Historians say that “radler,” which means “cyclist” in German, was invented in the early 20th century as a less-alcoholic alternative to a full beer for thirsty recreational cyclists stopping for a rest.

New Zealand beer drinkers have been fighting to get the name radler back in public ownership since 2009, when DB Breweries, which had trademarked the name in 2004 for it’s Monteith’s range, demanded that a small South Island craft brewer, Green Man Brewery Ltd., stop selling its own beverage labeled as radler Read More »